An early fall wedding at Camp Winnebago (now Winnebago Springs) near Caledonia, Minnesota, on September 5, 2015.

Melissa grew up just down the road from Camp Winnebago. Her sister Amanda married Jeremiah there in the spring of 2014, and the next fall it was Melissa’s turn. Same camp, a different season: a first look, vows they wrote themselves, pie for dessert, and a hazy sunset on the hill above camp.

Rustic, genuine, and fun-loving

Those were Melissa and Todd’s three words for the day. They found us through Amanda and Jeremiah, whose wedding the summer before had sold them on how we work. Their first note to us ended with a line we still like: “After over 7 years together already, we don’t need things to be perfect, so we’re just gonna be genuine, have fun, and leave it at that.”

Melissa got ready at her family’s home, just down the road from camp, and the morning coffee came from The Wired Rooster, Amanda and Jeremiah’s coffee shop in Caledonia. Then a first look with Todd before everyone headed over to Camp Winnebago.

The ceremony was outdoors, framed by a row of black walnut trees. (If you visit today, it’s the spot just down the steps from the open-air chapel the camp has built since.) It was a small, close group for the vows, and Melissa and Todd wrote their own. Hearing them say those out loud mattered more to them than almost anything else about the day. The reception in the camp’s main building was bigger, somewhere around 150 people. They’d told us the day would be full of things they loved: craft beer, wine, good local food, trees, and pie. Pie and cake shared the dessert table.

Camp sits down in a valley, so direct light slips behind the ridge early, right as golden hour starts. For sunset photos we drove the two of them a few minutes up the road to open ground with a real horizon. It was a hazy evening, and the sun went down soft and gold behind them.

Two independent people, choosing each other

Melissa described their marriage better than we could: “We are both very independent people who are actively and mindfully choosing to be together to enhance our lives.” Todd, for his part, called her “the most selfless woman I know.” She said he reminds her there’s a lighter side to life, and his grin all day made the case.

Melissa’s favorite childhood memory was walking in the woods with her family, her mom naming the birds and her dad naming the trees while the kids waited impatiently. She still calls the bluffs and valleys around Caledonia home in the way that counts, even after years in Minneapolis. It made sense that she’d get married in them.

Two sisters, one camp

Amanda and Melissa both worked at Camp Winnebago growing up. Amanda’s wedding was a cool May weekend, with a dusk ceremony in a budding grove and a shindig the next day. Melissa’s was a single September day. Both followed the same shape: a small ceremony with the closest family and friends, then a bigger reception of somewhere between 100 and 150 people. Seeing the same camp in two seasons, for two sisters, is one of the reasons we love going back to a place.

The camp now operates as Winnebago Springs, a family-owned venue in the Winnebago Valley south of Caledonia, just across the Mississippi from us. If you’re considering a camp wedding, start with our list of the best camp wedding venues and our guide to renting a summer camp for your wedding. More of our work around the river towns is on our La Crosse wedding photographers page.